Abdul Karim backs hard-line approach for repeat offenders

January 5, 2017

KUCHING: Habitual offenders should be handled with a hard-line approach, said Assistant Minister for Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

He said such repeat offenders must never be let off lightly.

“I fully agree and support the hard-line approach in handling habitual offenders. The fact that they are habitual offenders shows that we cannot address them lightly,” he said when contacted yesterday.

He was commenting on state Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department chief SAC Shafie Ismail’s recent statement that criminals need to be treated as criminals in order for them to give up their life of crime, with a hard-line approach necessary for crime prevention efforts to bear fruit, particularly when dealing with habitual offenders.

‘Build racing track to stop illegal races’

 July 5, 2012

SIBU: Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has suggested that a special racing track be built here to get youths away from illegal races.

He was asked on ways to reduce illegal racing among youths yesterday.

However, he said the move would not solve the problem completely.

This is because he believes that when they mature and shoulder more responsibilities, the urge to ‘rempit’ or race on public roads would gradually fizzle out.

“Youths being youths need some avenues to ‘release’ their ‘excess energy’ and many have resorted to illegal racing. A way out would be to prepare a special track for them but even that will not solve the problem.

“A lot of the youths ‘rempit’ or race on public roads just for the thrill of it. But once they reach a certain age where they carry more responsibilities like being a father, family man or when they start working, and have responsibilities to carry, they will slowly phase out that ‘rempit’ life,” the Assistant Minister of Youth Development told The Borneo Post through SMS.

Last Sunday, Sibu police chief ACP Shafie Ismail warned that they would soon mount a full scale operation to shackle illegal racing.